My goal for 2007.

Things I have been up to.

I've recently switched from coffee to red bull. Result? Still groggy, still grumpy, and now I've got a toothache. This is not working out for me. I just need my soy mocha latte no foam with room.

For some reason I've decided to be active in LCC again this quarter. I can't figure out what keeps drawing me back into all that stress and drama. Maybe it's because I now don't have midterms to distract me from putting on a good show. Come check it out November 17 and 18. More details to come.

I went to visit the La Brea tar pits. There are two things that I walked away with: a great appreciation for things that DO NOT smell like tar, and this cute purse:
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am now the proud owner of a wooly mammoth PURSE. It easily goes from a handbag to a clutch (here shown in clutch form).

My two best friends who currently live up north are coming to visit this Veteran's Day Weekend W00t! I want to spend a day doing touristy stuff, and a day doing LA type stuff, but I'm finding it difficult to come up with ideas. The definitely doings include Disneyland. The maybes include Museum Row, Fashion District, and Abbot Kinney bar/lounge hopping. Any other suggestions?

What's up?

I have a huge painful pus filled zit inside the very edge inside my nostril. VERY painful.

That's the only thing going on in my life worth blogging about. I have a very monotonous lot in life.

It's very hard to anagram anagram.

I am having fun with this Anagram generator. Kimhouy Tong can be anagramed to My Tough Oink. Haha!

I'm listening to listener supported radio! At work!

I think that the work day would pass agonizingly slow if it weren't for KCRW. I used to subscribe to Yahoo's Launchcast and listen to the same twenty songs randomly chosen and shuffled by a computer.... Yeah, I almost drove myself crazy. But I don't do that to myself now. Instead, I get to listen to music lists that DJs put together old fashioned way, flipping through catalogs by hand, picking songs that flow from one thought to another with some lyrical logic. It's pretty frickin' SWEET. Highly recommended. However, I do also recommend donating to the subscriber supported radio station. Then, you can listen to great music by The Soliloquists of Sound, Ray Lamontagne, or The Kooks (Check out their single "Naive!") without guilt.

I went to D-land awhile back

Here is approximately two thirds of the Disneyland fun-time crew. We look happy! I really love these guys, and I'm glad that a lot of them got annual passes. Now I have lots of Disneyland fun-time friends. Btw, that guy straddling Conroy is NOT Tan Lam. He is pseudo-Tan (i.e. our now good friend Bao). We like him a lot. Also, Hoai and Jonathan have bad "tough guy" faces.


This is my friend Lydia. She was the only other girl there. We're very cute.


This is me and Lydia together. She made me angry. Kim blast!

ARRRGHLKDjkasdjksldjk.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT.

History.

I went home. I came back. I cleaned. Trains were involved. Oh, and my parent's home is apparently contested turf in a vicious gang war. So, same old, same old.
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I love Youtube. However, I've mostly used it to look for clips of TV shows or celebrity interviews or really cute cats fighting. I've never locked onto a particular video contributor before. That was before I found clips of this man. His videos consist of anecdotes about his life told in ten minute one shots. In other words, his videos resemble every other video on Youtube.

So... what sets him apart from other Youtubers? He actually has something to say! I mean, the man has lived through wars! He's almost eighty years of history, but interesting and compelling and personal! Plus, mad props for attempting technology. My own parents have problems navigating the Favorites drop down menu. Check him out.
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I got the hammies new tubs and tubes. Pictures to follow. Trust me, TOO cute.

Unclaimed

There's this website that lets you know if you have unclaimed property in the state of California. Unfortunately, I have not misplaced ten million dollars in lost trust fund, as I had originally hoped. I entertained myself for an evening by looking for money for other people.

People I know who may have unclaimed property:
Christy "I ain't no bitch" Siojo
David "Soul of a 78 year old man, only more cantankerous" Lee
Alan "I have way better hair than my son" Jwo
Julia "Back in China-no, Australia-wait, no, Japan" Lam

.... um, and that's it. If it's yours, shame on you guys for leaving money just lying around. It could be put to good use! You know, extra cash for getting your friends nice things... like the really cute suede slouch ankle boots at DSW I had-I mean, that people might have had their eye on.

People I don't know but am really interested in and that's my own business goddammit who may have unclaimed property:
Joss "Slayed through the heart" Whedon=$184.06 and $1,326.00
Sarah "My career fell apart post-buffy" Gellar= $629.00 and $2,016.00
Angelina "Sometimes a vial of blood is just a vial of blood" Jolie:$602.83

I wish I had a witty ending for this post, but I don't. So, instead, I present to you Happy Cat:

Being loved makes him happy!

Hedgehog Preservation Society EXISTS.

There are so many thought-provokingly bizarre and awesome things in this article that I had to post it. Enjoy!

Inexplicable obsessions.

I am currently in love with Jimi Hendrix. I've tried several times over the past week to explain it to several friends, and the best I could articulate was "He's just, wow, you know? And, yeah. Uh."

It doesn't do Jimi Hendrix justice.
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Mike G linked to this awesome seal generating website. I made this one to test the product:

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.
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Still obsessed with 1996. Rewatching Buffy while listening to my Spice Girl Albums. I don't look forward to the life in which I talk with people who don't remember life before "Zig-a-zig-ah!" You know, like how people try to talk to me about Silver Spoons.

What the?

Pho place out on Western. I've never eaten at this place, but I feel like it would be a grave injustice if the waitresses weren't dressed as car show models and the busboys as um, car show model oglers?
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The retiling job in my apartment is starting to piss me off. I came home and there was a layer of dust (from pulling up the carpeting) on EVERYTHING. My clean dishes draining in the rack, my couch, my toothbrush, even the hammies were all dusty! Boo! I want this to be over!

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I now work from 7:30-4:30 so that I can take advantage of a carpool. It's nice to have the afternoons and evenings to myself, although I find I tend to doze around 10:30. Janet summed it up pretty well when she said, "There goes your social life."

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Having immigrant parents can be pretty cool. They do things like buy you a new car when you crash your first one within three months of owning it ("Everyone needs a car in LA, right?" "Uh, yeah mom... yes." But there are drawbacks. For example, my mother does not have the best grasp of English grammar. She'll say things like, "I'm boring," to indicate that she has nothing to do. So, when my mother says something like, "You're going to die," on the phone to me, I know she means "You're gonna kill yourself if you don't take better care of yourself." I love you too Mom.

I am enjoying routine.

There is something to be appreciated about getting up at the same time every day, working for eight hours, coming home to unwind and falling asleep like clockwork. After four years of college, it's a welcome change. Don't get me wrong; college frickin' ROCKED. But at some point midnight runs to Puzzles and drinking until five o'clock in the morning loses some of its luster.
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I am cat-sitting for Ray, my good friend of a bajillion years. Frankie the cat is thirteen years old and reminds me of a dog who wants nothing more from life than a bowl of soft food and a pat on the head. He's a pretty awesome cat. Unfortunately, I've noticed that since I've started visting Frankie, Chess and Punchy are very uncomfortable around me. Chess refuses to climb onto my hand and Punchy, well, Punchy acts more like Punchy, which means she runs around in circles more and chews on her wheel more vigorously.
...I need to get real pets.
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There is something very human about the need to make fire. It's a way of affirming that yes, we do belong at the top of the food chain. We were smarter than you so we get to eat you, HAHA. Sure, we've traded in tinder and flint for charcoal and lighter fluid, but the satisfaction of watching the flames catch is still strong. That is why I've put this hot little thing on my wish list.

Bits and pieces.

My strep throat has finally cleared, just in time for me to writhe in agony from my toothache. Yeah...guess who doesn't have dental coverage yet? My mouth and its peripheral body parts are betraying me! UCLA Human Resources has let me down!Arrrgh!

It's finally cooling down. You can really feel it in the evenings and early morning. It's a nice time to enjoy a mug of hot tea with a puzzle and hamster. Er, I meant loved one.
...No, I meant puzzle and hamster.



It's really hard! It's been sitting on my coffeetable for the past few weeks and I still haven't solved it yet. Arrrrrgh!

1996.

I was watching episodes of Buffy season one and was absolutely taken aback when I realized that it's been ten years since this show first aired. TEN YEARS!!! I was twelve years old ten years ago! And then, Mike G sent me this:

So (of course) I spent the next two hours on YouTube watching old clips of Spice Girls performances. Oh man, I loved the Spice Girls. Posh Spice was always my favorite. She's got this awesome sense of humor. I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want. I want girl power back.



A list of some other things I was obsessed with circa 1996.


Love at first sight with hot boy+Family Angst+"People screwing up my life, ugh why don't they just stop!"=Exacty how every twelve year old girl has ever felt. Baz Lurhman is very good at tapping into the pre-teen's psyche. Not only that, but it's love theme, "Kissing You" by Des'ree became my number one JAM that year.
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The Macarena. I still perform it. You do too. Stop lying to your bad self.
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Did anyone else own a pair of shiny pleather pants? I know I was not the only person sporting pleather pants. Or the pleather jacket. You know, the one with the matching waist-tie? We used to wear it with the knee high boots? Was that only me?
...Shut up.
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This scary man inspired me to take up Irish dance. Man, in seventh grade I had calves of steel. OF STEEL.


Um.... there was lots more in my head when I was thinking "Hey, I should post about things I like from 1996!" Um, I'm still trying to remember them... what else was there? Hm....

Folding.

File this one under "Why the hell didn't I think of this myself?!?"



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I've been trying to get really good at folding paper cranes. I fold them at work during my breaks. I've been getting a lot of guff for it though. Folding cranes is a more obvious sign that you're not getting work done. More so than, say, surfing on the computer. At least, surfing on the computer can be hidden by bringing up minimized spread sheet or something. What can I do when caught folding cranes?

"Uh, I was.... working on improving office morale?"

So yeah, now there's a stack of cranes in my office, for anyone to pick up for their own desk. Come by and get one, if you'd like. It'll improve my morale to see you!

My ailments.

I went into work Wednesday and came home almost immediately because I had the shivers. NOT the shakes, the shivers. By the time I got home I also had the headaches and the sore throat. Yup, I had the flu. Spent the rest of the day trying to get warm, getting too warm, trying to cool down, getting too cool, rinse, repeat.

Then I ran out of meds. Ran out of Nyquil, ran out of Dayquil and ran out of Advil. I still had my motrin, but that's for my crampies and I still had my tylenol pm, but I didn't want to knock myself out. I might not wake up and drown in my own phlegm!

Oh yeah, the phlegm. When you have a phlegmy cough AND a sore throat, lemme tell you, that is some painful right there. I feared phlegm like I never feared phlegm before.

I was feeling pretty ok this morning, and was going to go into work, but then I got a bloody nose and started coughing up blood.

...So yeah, going to the doctor today.

Isn't this stuff supposed to happen in the winter?! You know, when people have nothing better to do but get sick?!?!

Apartment stuff, largely.

Hey guys, I am looking to trade my large rectangular dining table that seats four for a small round dining table that can seat three. WITH chairs. Help a sister out! I need to make some space in my itsy bitsy living area! If you've visited, you totally know what I mean.

Speaking of, my apartment is undergoing some major changes this summer. They've already taken out the fireplace and are going to replace the carpet with tile. My living room is going to have that eerily clammy, bathroom feel. Yummy.

Also, if anyone would like a Russian dwarf, please let me know.

Bondfires.

I attended a very lovely bonfire this past weekend with the perpetually lively LCCers. We spent the day frolicking and barbecueing and all sorts of other fun things that end in -ing.

Here are pictures of some LCCers near and dear to my heart.

This is a pretty cool looking picture of Yumi, Simon, Me, Tru, Conroy and Jonathan. The moment appears much more classy than it actually was: Simon spent the entire time on Conroy's shoulders yelling, "My balls! My balls! Hurry up with the damn picture or they're going to rupture!" or something to that effect. And then Hoai ran up and jiggled Conroy's head, further infuriating Simon. It's OK though, Simon has the last laugh. He can do an ENGLISH ACCENT.



Yumi, Janet, Me, Hoai, Tru, Jonathan, Aki, Conroy and Simon making an awesome pyramid as the tide was coming in. There's only one thing missing from this pyramid:

Caroline got a little lost (OK, a lot lost) and so missed the pyramid building, but it's OK, because we saved her a spot right at the top! I feel this picture of Caroline kinda captures her reaction to LCC: slightly startled and apprehensive, but curious to see what these weirdos will do next.

What's next? This picture!

The obligatory mid-jump shot. Tru, Hoai, moi, Jonathan, Yumi et Simone. Janet was taking this picture, but she wanted in so we spent the next five minutes trying to replicate it. We couldn't though because Simon sucks at taking pictures.


Yay friendship!

Let's do this again!

Sprycel.

This is what I've been a part of for the past year!

It's nice to be a tiny part of something that makes a big difference. For the first six months, I didn't even know what I was filing for. ("What are we filing for?!" "Cancer!" "When are we filing it?!" "NOW!") It's interesting that a job I started as a part time student kind of grew into a full time career position. And it's stuff I like! And it's stuff that matters! Although it does make it harder to slack off at work.

"Hm, help work towards a new cancer medication, or visit cuteoverload..."
Decisions, decisions.